


The 2 Different Kinds of Frustration

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkwardness, Banker!Eren, Jamming, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Singer!Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 11:46:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4875652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi is the vocalist and lead guitarist of a popular band and due to certain arrangements, he now has to move into a condo unit with walls as thin as paper and a neighbour who has a hobby with kitchen utensils, pots and vases. At first, he thinks it’s a nuisance (because of the noise during ungodly hours), but when he actually starts to listen (to the stranger’s voice aside from his drumming), he thinks it would be quite doable to jam with the rhythmic symphony of clanking. And what if he did?</p><p>Eren is a bank manager and frustrated drummer ever-so-tired with the stupid applicants and the stupid loans and the even more stupid unpaid loans for stupid businesses that would never sell out in the first place. He needs to de-stress every once in a while and that every once in a while is almost every night. So what if he’s loud and so what if the new neighbour he’d dubbed ‘the nag’ turns out to be an incredibly hot rock band singer who’s suddenly in front of his doorstep asking to play along with his creative way of breaking crazy expensive china vases?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The 2 Different Kinds of Frustration

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Based off a coffee commercial.

Eren sighed as he looked at his watch before deciding that staring at the damn thing wouldn’t do anything to his benefit and got into his car. The past few months have been more stressful than he could imagine, being promoted to branch manager and all. Of course he was glad for the benefits that came with it – a car loan that was more of a steal than anything and more money in his pocket each payday – but at the price of ten times the stress? He was hardly even sure if it was worth it.

His previous jobs were nothing like this, being in the government and playing around with selling real estate and health insurance since he didn’t have to worry about having to put food on his table just yet. Heck, being an account officer was a piece of cake in Eren’s opinion and now here he was, internally smacking himself upside the head for mourning a promotion.

Not everyone would be given this chance and one peek at how he dreaded his job by his superiors, poof! There goes the job.

The brunette tried to stop thinking about it for a while as he stumbled into his studio type condo unit which was on the 24th floor of Garrison High-rise, located in the better side of town. At first look, it would clearly be distinguished by anyone as a bachelor’s unit, no doubt at that. Certainly, he wouldn’t be getting some run-of-the-mill apartment with disturbing neighbors who blared dubstep in the wee hours of the morning. Nope, he thought, never making that mistake again.

After a quick dinner and cold shower to cool his nerves, Eren dressed in his night clothes before pushing his small dining table into a corner and opening a cabinet in the kitchen that revealed what looked like authentic ancient china vases. He pulled them out one by one, counting four of them.

They were from his parents’ old house a few hours of driving away from Shiganshina and were some of the things he had gotten when he and his sister, Mikasa, agreed to split Carla and Grisha’s possessions after their deaths.

He then proceeded to take out some pots and one or two frying pans along with a ladle and wooden spatula. The brunette, seemingly sporting a softer expression now began to arrange the variety of things he got on the space he had cleared up and pulled over a little bean bag from beside his bed to sit on. He used a few books, including an old Webster’s dictionary that his dad bought for him way back when and the Grolier’s Book of Knowledge encyclopedia one of their mom’s close friends gave Mikasa and him when they were kids, to hold some of the pots up and a hat stand so that he could use the frying pans somewhat as cymbals and a high-hat.

The teal-eyed man held the ladle and spatula above either side of his head, closing his eyes for a second and then opening them to look at the makeshift ‘drum set’ he made with a weak hum of satisfaction, finding that they wouldn’t collapse any time soon and could hopefully allow him the span of one or two songs before closing his eyes again and pounding on the bottoms of cooking containers, the tops and sides of the china vases, testing them out.

He nodded to himself once again.

He started to warm up on a baking dish in front of him with the ladle on his right hand and on one of the pans with the wooden spatula on his left hand. After a few seconds, he started on the other pans and the china vases with a familiar tune in mind and then half a minute later, he was completely inversed in the feel of the song, mouthing some of the lyrics and throwing his head back every so often as he relished in the thought of flashing lights and electric guitars and one of his favorite rock songs.

Eren was a frustrated musician, still regretting to this day being swayed along at how his relatives and a few of his friends were able to convince him that the music industry was complete shit at the time and that he wouldn’t be able to make a living out of it.

That and his apartment was way too small for a real drum set. He could just shove a bunch of drums in a variety of sizes and the next thing he knew, he would be late to work, tripping over and over and bumping whichever part of his body every time he tried to prepare himself some food or even just go to the damn bathroom. He wouldn’t want to move either; he was already so used to this place and a lot of the people here and most of all, the fact that his workplace was less than ten minutes worth of driving away on a regular day, fifteen to twenty on worse days.

The walls weren't as thick as they seemed and from what he counts is more than five minutes into it, his neighbor next door or ‘Mr. Nagging Housewife’, as Eren had dubbed him began his nightly protests. Oh, how delightful.

“WHEN THE HELL ARE YOU GONNA REALIZE THAT IT ISN’T A FUCKING CONCERT GIG YOU’RE IN AND THIS IS A FUCKING CONDO WHERE THERE ARE OTHER FUCKING PEOPLE TRYING TO GET SOME FUCKING SLEEP?!”

Perfect way to ruin the mood, isn’t it?

The guy’s voice was rough and low, his mouth a literal cursing machine or at least more so than Eren’s own and of course pissed to the point of exploding like he just did. Surprisingly though, Eren finds that his voice wasn’t as unfamiliar as it should’ve been; he had never seen his face and he’s quite sure he doesn’t want to as it is.

“FUCK OFF! IT’S MY OWN FUCKING PLACE AND I CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT WHEN I’M STRESSED!”

Was what he yelled back. Peaceful interactions with other human beings must've been too boring for these two, seriously.

“WELL, GOOD THING IF YOU WEREN’T DISTURBING ANYONE ELSE BUT, GUESS WHAT?! YOU ARE! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!”

This guy really wasn’t getting tired if this… If the other neighbors didn’t know what was going on, they would assume the yelling pair was a married couple with no money for a divorce. They did know.

“NO ONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE DISTURBED BY IT SO WHY NOT JUST DEAL THE FUCK WITH IT?!”

The person on the other end of the wall made a sound of disbelief and then sighed.

“You’re a motherfucking asshole, you know that? I’d drown you in gasoline and light you up from your balls if I could. I’m fucking done with you.”

Yep, this man’s mouth was ten times worse than the brunette’s, and whoever are those names he could remember of those classmates from high school that teased him about it would probably call him a saint if they heard him. But at the end of the day, this guy was all talk… and so was Eren.

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“…”

Eren didn’t feel the need to say anything else, and just when he had expected some sort of smart-ass remark…

“Have fun with your china vases, then… good night.”

Said with as much sass as this guy seemed sassy, there was the flip of a switch. The last part was said with a hint of hesitation, obvious exhaustion and stress showing in his tone (Eren could tell, certainly) and maybe even a little bit of hopelessness behind it. This time, Eren decided not to judge him for it; he was more than a hundred percent sure they both had better things to do than yell at each other, obviously. Maybe he should have listened to the Horseface and took his work home with him anyway…

They had two or three yelling matches before, the latest ended with the strawberry-blonde haired woman a few doors down knocking furiously at each of their doors and giving them a thorough talk individually (which the other could hear from their own apartment). Eren had seen her a few times before and knew her as Miss Petra Ral, a teacher at a private high school thirty minutes away from Garrison. Yet still, Eren and the guy next door haven’t been intrigued enough to try to see each other’s faces. It would only be an inconvenience for both of them, probably, because they both seemed like the type never to go out from sulking in their apartments without good reason.

The man never seemed to leave or even go out of his unit whenever Eren did – in fact, he doubted if he even goes out at all. The brunette, too tired to think every time he arrived home which was when he would remember to think about him, assumed that he worked some kind of online job or something like that… or maybe he was nocturnal. He didn't care enough to ask.

Eren scoffed at what was said to him and responded in kind with a small amount of playfulness and almost no venom in his tone.

“Heh. Same to you.”

He decided that he wasn’t in the mood for ‘drums’ anymore and went to sleep a short while after as well. He had an appointment with one of his favorite clients tomorrow after all.

 

{---}

 

Levi made an annoyed grunt as he slammed the end call button on his unnecessarily large phone. Of all the bullshit excuses that his manager could think about, privacy was the best he could do? The tall, blonde-haired man had always been at least a little bit more smooth and believable when making excuses as the raven remembered it, but he wasn’t in the mood to laugh or respond with a snarky remark. Instead, he shut the phone on him, an obvious alternative course of action for someone like him.

So there he was, stuck in a condo unit with an annoying neighbor who just loves not granting him any chance to sleep with all the pounding and tapping and clanking on the other side of the walls for one month more than he should be. Mr. Inconsiderate Asshole, as he called him seemed to have some sort of fetish for destroying other people’s ears. Levi wondered why Miss Ral, another neighbor worth mentioning, only got pissed when he and Mr. Asshole started a yelling match about a week ago and not the first time she heard the hellish sound of kitchen utensils sounding like there was no tomorrow over at the other side of the wall.

Ever since the bastard next door, being nocturnal out of convenience and trying to write new songs in the middle of the night was no longer an option.

It had been so long since the last time Levi had a proper good night’s sleep, the schedule of a rock band vocalist and primary writer of the band’s songs was too demanding that eight straight hours of sleep he considered a luxury for the longest time. Hanji was always telling him that despite that, night sleep was important and more relieving than the day sleep he was used to so he should utilize his time in the tiny condo unit fixing his sleeping habits and yet he merely scoffed and said it didn’t matter to him anymore.

Just fucking great. Now he really did need to cope into some new sleeping habits. And even better, he had to go out of his apartment because he was out of tea.

An hour later, Levi found himself walking out of the parking lot, two big paper bags in hand. He was rushing to get into the building due to the early winter and cold air nipping at his skin especially when he decided to wear a thin shirt and jeans with absolutely nothing to ward off the cold.

Someone suddenly passed him by the side and ran into the almost-full elevator (apparently, he arrived at a time where there was a bunch of other people getting home from work and other respective places) just as he was about to step in. What a jerk. The raven glared at the closing elevator, only to be able to steal a short glance at a wild mop of chocolate brown hair; it was someone he didn’t know and would probably never see again.

After glaring at the closed elevator doors for another ten seconds or so, Levi angrily stomped into the next elevator to his left and waited about a minute for it to go all the way down to the lobby and finally get to his unit.

As he got in, he instantly glanced at the clock on the left side of the door, as if out of instinct, and had his expression shift into a mix between surprise and an expression that seemed like his biggest prayer had been answered. It was half-past eleven in the evening and the asshole next door didn’t make as much as a squeak.

Maybe he finally learned some consideration, Levi hoped, so that he could finally, comfortably, assume his previous sleep schedule without much uneasiness gnawing at him every single night. But then again, it may only be for tonight...

Let’s just hope not.

 

{---}

 

Oh, his clients can just oh-so-happily screw themselves; Eren was done. He was so fucking done with all their bullshit that his plastic smile managed to turn into an all-out glare at least three times today. His superiors couldn’t fire him, no, because he had just quit. Money be damned.

He wasn’t completely helpless without that job, no, because he had more than a big chunk of things to sell; his car, those expensive china vases, the Rolex watches and at least five pairs of running shoes. And he would only be jobless for two weeks at the most; of course he had been smart enough not to forfeit his membership as a real estate agent, he never did stop selling at the side even when he had a steady job. Besides, because of all the investors and clients he had come across during his last job, there was more than enough commission to momentarily keep him on his toes.

After an hour or so of sulking and justifying other life choices he had made back in the day, and after still feeling shitty as ever, did he notice the time. Midnight.

Now, he thought, was his turn to piss someone else off.

He had completed his little set-up faster than usual tonight in the span of about five minutes and then there Eren was, unleashing all of his feelings and all of his urges to kick his past clients’ faces in by slamming with whatever force he had while mouthing the lyrics to the song he decided suited the situation ever so perfectly.

 _“You are a brick tied to me that’s dragging me down. Strike a match and I’ll burn you to the ground.”_ Eren’s quiet whispers of the lyrics become louder as he continued, still fully-enveloped into the song with his eyes shut, head whipping back and forth and just all that pure, unfiltered rage coursing through him as he hit each beat on point.

 _“We are the jack-o-lanterns in July, setting fire to the sky and here, here comes this rising tide,”_ He made sure to put clear emphasis on the word that needed to be emphasized and then it hit him; he was full-on singing now.

 _“So come on!”_ He had gone back to humming through the short interval, having no actual accompaniment other than the imaginary electric guitars and keyboard in his head, which consisted of a larger-than-life arena and thousands of people screaming his name.

He really shouldn’t have gone into the field where he did.

 _“Put on you war paint!”_ His voice was even louder than before now and he was quite sure that his ‘drumming’ was also louder, yet he wasn’t exactly inclined to care at the moment. Honestly, he didn’t give a single flying fuck about the man next door, no matter what he could possibly say about him now. He has absolutely no talent in drums? Who the hell cares. His voice is terrible? Fuck you.

But then, just about as the brunette was about to get to the chorus, there was suddenly someone knocking on the door.

_Goddamn it, am I gonna get arrested now?_

Eren reluctantly stood from where he had been sitting, nearly tripping over one of the china vases and even stopped in his way for a second to ensure that the vase that was worth a few thousand dollars wasn’t, in any way, in danger or damaged and opened the door to find a pale-skinned, raven-haired man with silver, cobalt blue-ish eyes and a shorter stature than himself.

He had a mix of shocked, confused, impatient and annoyed on his expression that was quite frankly a bit difficult to decipher. He had never seen him before, that was for sure. He was wearing a long-sleeved black sweater, grey jogging pants and was carrying an electric guitar.

_Wait, what?_

But before he can question him about it, the shorter man in front of him beat him with a question of his own.

“You can sing?” Was what he asked. His eyes, only now did Eren notice, were widened slightly and his voice… that voice…

“ _You’re_ the guy from next door?!” The teal-eyed man had exclaimed before he could even think clearly on it. He couldn’t be wrong, the voice was the same but… damn, he didn’t expect him to look this, and dare he say it, _hot._

“And _you’re_ the bastard from the elevator.”

His expression turned incredulous and then for a moment cautious, before he looked at his left and right for about two seconds, and then sent the brunette almost stumbling into his own flat and shut the door behind him as he had stepped in as well.

“Hey, what’re you- what was that for?” Eren rubbed his sides as he had unfortunately bumped into a wall, scowling at the man in front of him.

“You know who I am?” He leaned closer into the brunette, probably closer than what would’ve been necessary.

“Answer my question first!” Eren stumbled back into the wall again, thankfully being fully-aware of it and not managing to hit his head on it. This condo unit seemed to be getting smaller by the second and the older man found himself swallowing hard.

“Listen. I’m just ensuring my own safety and privacy here. I came to temporarily live in this place to get away from fans and paparazzi, anyway. Now, I might’ve just given away everything and there would be a hell of a lot of people flocking here not too long from now if they haven’t already tried to. I mean, I’d love to be able to finally sleep at night or do something productive if I _can’t_ ,” the man glared at him before continuing, “but it’s just another big hassle.” He might as well have hissed out, spitting out the first syllable in ‘hassle’.

“What?"

“Just answer me.”

“I’ve asked you two questions now.”

“Seriously?” The younger of the two groaned before lacing his next words with a little spark of sass and a matching eye roll, “Fine. Yes I am and you’re just as annoying to talk to as our first yelling match.”

“Well then, no. I don’t know who you are. I don’t exactly keep up with today’s celebrities; I’ve got better things to do, anyway.” The brunette crossed his arms and furrowed his brow at how frustrating this conversation had been while convincing himself that he and this man in front of him have no hopes of possibly getting along, seeing each other or not be god-fucking-damned.

The raven breathed a sigh of relief. Then, Eren wondered, “Wasn’t this the first time we’d seen each other’s faces?”

Oh. _Oh._

“Putting that aside,” the raven-haired man had stepped one or two steps back now, leaving Eren with comfortably more space, “you sing? And actually play?”

“No. I’m a bank manager.” Well, he should’ve used something that involved motherfucking past tense but right now, he was basically just talking straight from what he heard and even thinking or wording his response before saying it, like he usually does. But he didn’t seem that put off with the straightforward answer. “That was just…”

“Not bad; for someone like you.”

What?

“Tell you what; I think it’s enough of you waking people with your drumming and singing here at night. How about I take you to a place where you can really play?” Eren’s eyes instantly widened. Him; a real drummer, all the more, singer? Or was this guy just screwing with him?

He had come to the conclusion that long ago, his friends were not really discouraging him because the money made in the particular industry he wanted to enter was shit, but they just didn’t want to tell him upfront that he sucked.

“B-but I don’t- really?” _Screw me for stuttering._

“Yeah, when are you free?”

“Whenever, actually.”

“Hah?”

“Ah, I quit my job today but you don’t have to worry, I have a side job so I won’t be getting broke any time soon- anyway, tomorrow’s fine with me.” He grinned a little nervously at the raven, and to his surprise the man’s own expression softened a tad.

“Okay, then.” He proceeded to step further into Eren’s apartment, which earned him a puzzled look.

“What are you doing?” He put a hand on his hip, eyeing the raven suspiciously.

“Looking for a socket for this,” he motioned at his guitar, “What does it look like, brat?”

“How dare you- wait a minute, how old are you?”

“Twenty-four.”

The brunette snorted.

“I’m twenty-nine.” Suddenly, Eren just had plastered a smug look on his face.

“…”

The raven wasn’t at all paying attention to him and now he had just plugged his electric guitar into a nearby socket.

“Okay, I’m ready. Now, get over here.” Eren’s expression shifted into confusion.

“Why?”

“So we can jam together.”

“Didn’t you just say enough of my disturbing the other neighbors? That includes you, actually, and now you wanna join me?”

“You can forget that.” He was tweaking some things in his guitar for a few seconds before he turned to look at Eren, still sporting the exact, same expression.

“I don’t even know your name,” the older man said, shaking his head slightly.

“It’s Levi.”

Why does that sound familiar? And his voice, too, for some reason.

“And you’re a…” Eren trailed off, hoping for his answer to trigger something in his faulty memory.

“Singer. For The Reluctant Heroes. Compose most of the songs, too.”

It was true, Eren never really paid attention to who sang the songs he listened to; who wrote them or whatever the hell their background was. He just knew how to distinguish each artist or group of artists from one another and just simply enjoyed their music with no interest whatsoever in whom they were as people. Without realizing it, he just suddenly burst out laughing.

“I-I’m sorry,” he managed to choked out between laughs, “I’m laughing at myself. Your band’s name was on the tip of my tongue all along.” He was finally able to stop himself.

Levi crooked an eyebrow at him and the brunette cleared his throat before answering, “I listen to your music; love it, actually.” Eren felt a little embarrassed admitting that. The reason? Who the fuck knows. It was even funnier that that the vocalist of one of his favorite bands was in his apartment, asking to jam with him and actually said he had talent.

But this situation was already too awkward and him freaking out because of those facts would only probably worsen everything. So, here he was, racking his mind for a save.

“I’m Eren.” He gave the raven a radiant smile and held out his hand. Ah, surely after years in the banking world, he would’ve learned how to salvage seemingly hopeless social situations. As Eren recalled it, he might as well have been trained for it since childhood.

The younger man took the hand he extended, stiffly and maybe held onto it a second longer than necessary.

“Um…” Eren mumbled, which made Levi suddenly snap out of whatever he was thinking and clear his throat, speedily letting go of the brunette’s hand.

 

And then Levi found himself being completely captivated by the way Eren sang, tone and intensity when he landed each note; the way his eyes were shut and how passionate his expression was. Even the way he met each beat with ‘drums’ straight up made him look like a natural.

The raven made sure that each strum and press of his slender fingers on the strings were exact and controlled but he was soon eaten up by the melody of the song and the brunette’s singing in front of him that he didn’t realize when he had started shutting his eyes on some parts as well.

  

It seemed like the teal-eyed man almost didn’t notice that the song was over, and when he did, he was met with a Levi with his mouth slightly open and staring straight at him. Eren felt like he was shrinking.

“Uh…”

“That was amazing.” The silver-eyed man said with a serious expression and it was Eren’s turn to have his mouth gaped open.

Before he could ask which; the slamming of a ladle and wooden spatula on pots and pans or his singing…

“Your voice. We could definitely use someone like you in the band.”

Eren was still currently a fish until knocking from outside made him snap out. “Th-thank you.”

He was given a small smile in response that only made the brunette respond in kind before he once again stumbled through his apartment to the front door.

Would you look at how lucky he was? He’d just quit his job and main source of income and the same day, he was being offered to join a band, which was making him feel restless right now. However, when he opened the door, he found an extremely pissed Miss Ral on the other side.

The two received a long, thorough talk once again that night; the teacher that had been woken up from her sleep didn’t stop until she was sure everything sunk in but at the end of it all, Eren heard more knocking that was from the left wall of his small unit right after he had turned the lights off and was heading to his bed. He felt a smile creep up his features before he answered the silent question.

“I’ll meet you at the restaurant downstairs at noon.” The teal-eyed man didn’t have to put a lot of effort in making sure he was heard since the walls were thin as fuck anyways. Eren heard another flip of a switch that reminded him of their last yelling match and some shuffling of fabric and took it as his cue to sleep.

He spent his last moments before falling asleep wondering how he oh-so-easily figured out what Levi was trying to tell him whilst he spending quite some time in a very frustrating conversation with that very same man just earlier. In the end, he decided to give up in racking his head about it and convinced himself in believing that maybe conversations between the two of them had a grain of hope of being more normal and with less cutting each other off or answering questions with questions after all.

…Or so he thought when they met the next day, Eren leaving Levi furiously flustered because he took what the brunette said as a goodbye in a slightly different way than Eren had intended it to sound.

**Author's Note:**

> Well that was more awkward than it should’ve been… but, eh. More awkwardness = more fun
> 
> I hope you enjoyed my first ever oneshot on this site!


End file.
